Search results quality is very important to Google since its inception. The goal of the company was to grant access to information on the Internet with decent, computational algorithms. Web pages were analyzed by a robot named Googlebot, and then included in the search engine index. There was no room for manual intervention, and the term “Google penalty” did not exist.
A little history of search: Google penalty
With the commercialization and development of the Internet, attempts have been made to deceive Google. By 2003, it was possible to manipulate results by inserting a keyword multiple times into a page, faking meta tags. This used to work and delivered instant results. The original Google algorithm was developed to calculate the citation rates of Stanford University research papers and thereby identify potential Noble price winners. It was vulnerable to even primitive cheating attempts.
The Florida update, which was implemented in 2003 to the algorithm, introduced for the first time the concept of an SEO filter, today called an algorithmic filter. The most heavily optimized pages disappeared from the search results immediately after the update was implemented. Also, since this update, Google only displays up to the first 1000 results for each phrase, not all results as before. The limitation prevents from analyzing how particular filter effects the position in search results.
A few years later Google failed. They had to change tactics, and employees – the Google Search Engine Quality Team appeared, who had to help robots evaluate the pages. Today a lot of Google algorithm is human in nature. This is evident in the case of English sites – the large market and cheap labor force in India makes it possible to employ a sufficiently large number of people – robots who judge whether a site is genuine or exists just to improve the ranking of another sites. Non-English versions of Google do not have this effect, and in principle, spam detection is algorithmic + analysis of spam requests to Google by the staff speaking the language. Robotoids can also appear in the future if the search engine finds it appropriate.
Google Penalty – Algorithmic or manual
If a site receives a Google penalty, it will be one of the two types: algorithmic or manual. Penalty is dependent on the severity and amount of “offenses” and is shown by a significant reduction in key phrase positions, and in extreme cases, the complete disappearance of the site from the search results (for example, the site does not show up for the business name and city). For a company website, this means a steep drop in traffic and consequently sales leads loss.
Search Console Manual Actions Penalty
What can cause Google Penalty?
- Malicious code – pages hacked by hackers, or spam scripts.
- Use forbidden techniques, such as keyword stuffing or showing to robots conents other than to human visitors.
- Unnatural link profile, Google is free to judge whether links to our site are natural or not.
- Duplicate content of other web sites (whole site being a copy of another website), or spammy content (computer generated, incomprehensible content).
How to recognize the Google Penalty?
First of all, we should constantly monitor the site. In many cases we do not realize that the site has been hacked and for example started redirecting certain users to spammy sites. Often, in order to achieve fast, short-term effects, a SEO company uses risky techniques. Without proper monitoring, should the site reveive penalty, we may not notice it and react fast enough.
The first tool we should use is Google Search Console. In the case of a manual filter, the search engine itself will show the problem to us and indicate what to eliminate. A significant drop in traffic, often with an increase in spam traffic, can be observed in Google Analytics. In addition, helpful are tools such as Ahrefs, for analyzing the inbound links and showing phrase visibility. If a decrease in visibility for phrasees on Google is seen, it means that something is going wrong.
Algorithmic filter works differently – there is no notification. It appears that the page is lower for a certain number of places in the search results – for example, from position 3 to 13, and there it remains, never entering the first 10 search results. Some algorithmic filters are lifted automatically after a specific time or event (Panda, Penguin). Some, especially related to the phrase in the domain name, remain active forever since the filter is applied.
How do I recover from Google penalty?
In the first place, all actions that caused the punishment should be eliminated. Hacking, viruses, or illegal techniques on site must be removed by yourself or by a specialist. If the punishment includes the link profile, we must analyze all inbound links and get rid of those “bad” ones. Unfortunately, we usually do not have access to the pages where spammy links are present. Here we can use the Google tool to disavow links. It allows to give up unwanted links, and the whole operation is to send a properly prepared .txt file to Google. If a Google manual filter is applied, submit a reconsideration request bythe Search Console. We should get answers within a few days, up to a few weeks.
If you are unable to handle the Google penalty yourself, please contact us and we will restore your site to its original condition!
We offer:
- Verify and diagnose the site for Google penalties (whether it is an algorithmic or manual Google filter).
- Cleanse the site of malware and forbidden techniques. This does not mean that we will remove all links to the site.
- Clearing the link profile.
- Google penalty confirmation and recovery.